English abstract

Aim To clarify the Internet role in the education of patients, to identify the reasons users look for physician consultations on the Internet instead of visiting a physician, and to explore their general characteristics, motivation and satisfaction with the specialized medical Internet portal and the "Your Questions” consultation service. ----- Methods Monitoring web statistics (number of visits, key words, articles). Users of the Internet medical portal and a free consultation service ‘Your Questions’ (www.plivazdravlje.hr) were invited to participate in a web-based survey designed to explore their general characteristics (age, sex, etc.), their reasons for using the service, the nature of their health problems or questions, and their satisfaction with the service. Respondents were divided into two groups: those who consulted an Internet physician only (Group I) and those who consulted Internet before or after visiting a physician (Group II). ----- Results Daily average is 10,000 visitors; the most visited topics are disease manual, Your Questions services and current articles. Visitors are mainly women between 25 and 34 years old, highly educated, interested in prevention. The web survey response rate was 38% (1036/2747), with 79% of female respondents. A fifth of the respondents (21%) consulted an Internet physician only (Group I). Multivariate analysis revealed that the respondents from Group I were younger (median 24 vs. 28 years in Group II), more interested in questions about pregnancy (odds ratio [OR], 1.984; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.203-3.272), more often embarrassed to talk to a physician in person (OR, 1.828; 95% CI, 1.119-2.989), and more motivated to protect their privacy (OR, 1.727; 95% CI, 1.252-2.380). Their satisfaction with the service was also greater (77% vs. 60%, P<0.001). ----- Conclusion Users often visit the portal, search through its contents and ask questions about their health problems. However, the educating role of specialized portals should be better determined in future investigations. The factors associated with the use of the Internet-based medical consultation services were younger-age users, need for privacy protection, avoidance of embarrassment at the physician’s office, and questions related to pregnancy. This shows the Internet medical portal and consultation services to be a useful health promotion tool, particularly among young adults.